Introduction
As John said last week, this
is the era of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will enable the followers of
Jesus to live effectively for him. Whereas Jesus returned to be with God forty
days after his resurrection, he promised us the Holy Spirit to be our constant
companion and guide. In all cases the Holy Spirit will point towards the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus … being the central point of history. Jesus
said, “I will be with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), and
it is the Holy Spirit that makes this promise real.
The Holy Spirit develops our
fruitiness, aids our discipleship, and brings us special gifts through which to
serve others. The Holy Spirit sets us apart with growing integrity,
faithfulness, peace, hope and purpose; guiding us into rich experiences of
community and participation in the ‘Body of Christ’ – the church. And
primarily, as we shall see, the Holy Spirit empowers (or enables) us to
participate effectively in building the Kingdom of God.
The Scriptures
Scripture presents many
various ways in which the Holy Spirit has impacted humankind. The Holy Spirit
was evident in Old Testament times – guiding people like Abraham, Moses and
David … through God’s purposes. The Holy Spirit spoke through prophets like
Isaiah, Jeremiah and Micah. The Holy Spirit was endowed upon the human Jesus at
his baptism, demonstrating that the work of God would be done through the
ministry of Jesus. Jesus promised the availability of the Holy Spirit to all
his followers. In the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit seems to be given while
Jesus is still alive.
Acts tells us about a
particular day, the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit swept powerfully
through all the existing believers (and the community in general), leading to
all sorts of remarkable happenings – the greatest of these being the three
thousand people who were added to the Kingdom following Peter’s sermon. And we
can’t help but notice, that disciples like Peter, John and James, previously
fearful, and often clueless, became the most faith-filled and courageous
ambassadors for the Gospel … because they had been filled with the Holy Spirit.
The ‘Day of Pentecost’ served as a major launching pad for the Jesus movement
(that became known as ‘Christianity’) and the future mission of God into the
whole world.
As Peter called the crowd to
repentance and faith in Jesus that ‘Pentecost Day’, to be acknowledged in
baptism, he indicated that they would then receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit could bring our fragile determinations to ‘repent’ toward reality. And
there are other instances of people receiving later blessings of the Holy
Spirit, as they came to learn of its availability and effectiveness. Thus the
Holy Spirit is available to us as we decide for Jesus, but we also need to be
open for the radical change and giftedness that the Holy Spirit wants to bring.
We need to be continually open for new things to be brought into our experience
of God. Are we ready for those ‘out-of-comfort-zone’ experiences, or
challenging calls to mission, that the Holy Spirit tends to bring?
It is also possible that the
Holy Spirit has been working in our lives for a long time (leading up to our
acceptance of Jesus), seeking to awaken us to the possibilities of faith. So,
on balance, we shouldn’t see the Holy Spirit so much in terms of a point in
time, but more as an ongoing and exciting adventure for the believer. And God
works in each of our lives, as we are ready, his wonders to perform! This
factors in … our varying experiences of life and unique personality types. This
is why we can all continue to prayerfully sing these words: “Take me, mould me,
use me, fill me – I give my life into the Potter’s Hand”.
Yet, the Holy Spirit is not
just about us in individual terms, not just about me. We learn very clearly
from Paul that the Holy Spirit, with all the associated giftedness, is given
for the “common good” – for the collective work of the Kingdom and church, and
also for the blessing and transformation of the world. It is the Holy Spirit
that enables the children of God together … to embrace the new creation that we
are all yearning for (Romans 8).
What
are your experiences of the Holy Spirit?? I experienced the Holy Spirit
bringing truth to my soul, when I first went to theological college in 1988,
and I listened to Professor Athol Gill talk about Jesus, as I had never heard
him talked about before. I experienced the Holy Spirit very emotionally, when we
moved from inner city ministry to the SE suburbs of Melbourne, and I
experienced new homegrown worship music that reached deeply down to the depths
of my weariness (as if it was written just for me). I experienced the Holy
Spirit in a healing way, when I first heard the teaching of Allan Meyer, who
explained, in biblical terms, much of how I felt about myself. I experienced
the Holy Spirit in a mighty way, when at the Point Cook church, where I was
pastor, the congregation spontaneously gathered in a big prayer huddle around a
woman who had just announced one Sunday morning her dire cancer diagnosis. I have
experienced the Holy Spirit opening doors of ministry over the last 30 years. I
sensed the Holy Spirit yesterday, as that beautiful cross-section of church,
football/netball club and local community, came together to eat breakfast and
have conversation.
The Purpose
In our reading from Acts chapter 1, ten days before
Pentecost, when hearing about the impending gift of the Holy Spirit, the
disciples immediately got diverted onto peripheral matters (verse 6). They were
still most interested in their own preferences and personal agendas – this was
the stuff of personal comfort zones. This was very much the WRONG QUESTION!!
Jesus quickly set them straight – that this should NOT be their concern, and
this was NOT the purpose behind receiving the Holy Spirit (verse 7).
Then follows, in verse 8, the
real purpose of the Holy Spirit … from a God so intensely determined to connect
with all humanity! The purpose of the Holy Spirit is NOT so that we get all
wrapped up in how spiritual we are, and NOT get focussed on how theologically
pure we can be, and NOT get distracted by side-issues – all the stuff of ‘ego’;
but rather … simply … to be “witnesses” to Jesus.
Get on with that … witnessing
to Jesus! Jesus – who loved the rejected outsider. Jesus – who brought healing
into the life of the oppressed. Jesus – who taught us to love our enemies, and
all sorts of other teaching that turn the world’s way of thinking upside down.
Jesus – who forgave those who unjustly tortured and killed him. Jesus – the
suffering servant of humankind. Jesus – who wept over the state of the city of
Jerusalem and took action to overthrow the injustice that was being tolerated
in the temple. Jesus – who died to relieve the guilt and shame of all humanity
and give them a new life.
The Witness
To positively “witness” about
someone is to: state your belief in them, and testify favourably about them. So
we apply this to Jesus. The word “witness” is translated from the Greek word
“martus” … from which we get the word ‘martyr’; thus already acknowledging the
potential difficulty and danger involved at times. But this also suggests that
we should be a witness for Jesus in all circumstances and contexts, and
at all times, whatever the cost.
Witnessing to Jesus … will
best testify to the truth of who he is, through revealing how our lives are
being changed … not just in the past, but also yesterday, and right now, and
what we are anticipating for tomorrow. We are unlikely to argue anyone into the
Kingdom of God; the way of Jesus is to love, forgive and live them … into the
Kingdom. To quote John from last week, “we have to be what we
believe”. It is by showing in real life how Jesus works, that others will come
to know him. And this is exactly what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit
empowers us to be effective witnesses to Jesus. This happens as we grow and
mature into the image of Jesus. This also happens as we work together to show
what the ‘Body of Christ’ is like.
This is how it should be, and
we can be rightly criticised when it is not like this! Often the witness of the
church has become a sham, and this should bring about great regret and
repentance. But this sometime sad assessment should NOT dishearten us into
inertia or inaction, because Jesus is still alive (as always), and has given us
the Holy Spirit as our teacher for the ages. We, as this local representation
of God’s Kingdom, can bust free of our own baggage, and any ill-feeling around
us, and make a huge difference for good. Jesus lives! “He walks with me and
talks with me along life’s narrow way – with salvation to impart”.
The witness Jesus referred to
in verse 8, was to take place first around the home base of Jerusalem, then to
the larger region of Judea, then out further to the Samaritans (who were no
friends of Jewish people), and then on to Rome to the Gentiles. This was
adventurous stuff! So the church has taken on this mission into the far reaches
of the world, sometimes with great outcomes, sometimes with misplaced ideas and
subsequent failure, sometimes being met with hostility. Still people cross national
borders to share the good news – sometimes necessarily or advisably in the form
of serving the poor.
A love for neighbour remains
the best motivation and guide for the form our witness will take. And for us
here in Australia, mission has become more localised, for “the ends of the
earth” have come to us. So we may then rephrase verse 8 to read: “You will be
my witnesses among familiar people, then by extending your networks and
building new relationships (among the unfamiliar), and by getting out of your
comforts zones altogether”. With the Holy Spirit ‘in tow’, there is NO
challenge too great!
The
first disciples had tremendous success. In 30 short years, the Gospel spread
all the way from Jerusalem to Rome (without the help of the internet, or television,
or telephone, or even Morse code). Just people on foot, or around tables,
sharing the stories of what Jesus meant to them … in the power of the Holy
Spirit. They had a burning conviction about sharing Jesus. And they backed this
up with – care for the poor, widows and orphans; visits to prison; burying the
dead of their general community; and sharing their resources with one another.
Conclusion
We
can look for openings within current relationships. We can pray for new
openings in more complicated situations. We can be ready and available. We can
have the light on our veranda shining … to say that others are welcome. We can
respond to needs as they become known to us. We can listen to stories of
brokenness and joy. We can learn their language of their heart. We can draw
connections between our positive experiences of Jesus with other people’s
difficulties. We can model hopefulness in the most challenging of
circumstances. We can be attuned to the Holy Spirit, and follow the quiet
leadings … into the places God would have us be. In this way we truly speak in
the native tongues of other tribes. Pentecost can happen over and over again.
In
this we are ourselves, but we are not alone!! We plant seeds, trusting that
others will water, and God will bring growth. We water the seeds planted by
others. We also plant together – where the community gets to witness a diverse
bunch of people love and encourage each other, working together in a unified
way towards joint outcomes, each making unique and complimentary contributions
– all embracing the richness of that diversity.
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